whitrichardson: If you liked "Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture" by Apostolos Doxiadis, you will certainly enjoy "Logicomix", also by Doxiadis. "Logicomix" is a graphic novel that tells the story of British mathematician and logician Bertrand Russel and his search for a logical foundation of mathematics.… (more)

I enjoyed this look at what defines success and failure in one's life. It's also a look at obsession and control.Uncle Petros' life is changed when he decides that his goal will be to solve Goldbach's Conjecture, a mathematical theorem that hasn't been proved. What does one give up in life when obsessed by one thing? ( )

While it's not great, this novel about a mathematician and his nephew at least deals with interesting math. Neither of the main characters is very likable, however, and the dialogue's among the clunkiest I've ever seen. ( )

I found myself enjoying this book when I realized it's best read as a myth, not as a straight work of fiction. Knowledge of the formulas of higher mathematics isn't necessary but knowledge of the pursuit of proofs and the names of some of the most famous practitioners would be helpful. A quick read, and a good one. ( )

Pseudoscientific....you never actually more than scratches at the mathematics; i.e. whatever puzzle would have served as the propeller of the story. The story has a thin plot; it is about the storyteller and his relationship to the uncle, the mathematician, the failure who never becomes the one to prove Golbachs conjecture, and the uncle`s influence on his career choice, why he never became a mathematician himself in the end. Good idea set up with unusual props - it could have been....

But the story fails psychologically in the end when the nephew starts a crusade to make his old uncle come to terms with his failure. This is an act absolutely incongruent with the carefully displayed longstanding and growing sympathy between uncle and nephew, and of the empathy the more mature nephew developes towards his uncle through the combined knowledge begot from his own journey in to the mathematician´s world and the close greek kinship. The nephew´s crusade against what he perceives as illusions of his uncle, precipitates the uncle´s last go at the puzzle, and eventually his death, a premature death the nephew easily washes his hands of. The nephew´s character transformation is not tragic (unleashed unknowingly with disastrous results) they are just unbelievable.

Psychologically dysfunctional added to the fact that we never come close to mathematics per se leaves the book standing shakely on both legs. ( )

Archimedes will be remembered when Aeschylus is forgotten, because languages die and mathematical ideas do not. 'Immortality' may be a silly word, but probably a mathematican has the best chance of whatever it may mean.G.H. HARDY, A Mathematician's Apology

Dedication

First words

Every family has its black sheep -- in ours it was Uncle Petros.

Quotations

Last words

They form one further addition to the collection of posthumous messages that make the First Cemetery of Athens one of the world's most poetic:EVERY EVEN NUMBER GREATER THAN 2IS THE SUM OF TWO PRIMES